Built, the unbuilt and the unbuildable: in pursuit of architectural meaning - Hardcover

Harbison, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0500341168 ISBN 13: 9780500341162

Publisher: Thames & Hudson, 1991

Synopsis

The pristine, the ruined, the ephemeral, and even the notional are the subject of Robert Harbison's highly original and admittedly romantic contribution to the literature of architecture. His fresh perceptions open this practical art to new interpretations as he explores the means by which buildings, real or imagined, evade or surpass functional necessities while sometimes satisfying them. What fascinates Harbison in these discussions are the paradoxes and ironies of function that give rise to meaning, to a psychological impact that may or may not have been intended. He chooses examples from an architectural borderland - of gardens, monuments, ideal cities and fortification, ruins, paintings, and unbuildable buildings -where use and symbolism overlap; he examines the exceptions at the edges of a field that will illuminate its center. Harbison's pursuit of man's efforts to "fashion art from nonhuman life" begins with a consideration of gardens and the organic architecture of the English Arts and Crafts movement and of Gaudi, then turns to monuments (Claes Oldenburg, Christo, the Vietnam Memorial) that are "either the nearest or the furthest thing from gardens." Harbison's discussion of fortification and urban planning leads to metaphorical themes (fort-features in churches or prisons or Fascist municipal buildings) and mocked-up worlds (Williamsburg, Disneyland), and to the subject of fictional space as expressed in ruins, in painting, in the unbuildable, and finally in the inconceivable as revealed in Kafka's sketches.

Robert Harbison has lectured widely on architecture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the University of Toronto, Stanford University, Cornell University, and the Architectural Association, London. His previous books include Eccentric Spaces, Deliberate Regression, and Pharaoh's Dream.

About this title

About the Author

Robert Harbison has lectured widely on architecture at the Museum of Modem Art in New York, the University of Toronto, Stanford University, Cornell University, and the Architectural Association, London. His previous books include Eccentric Spaces, Deliberate Regression, and Pharaoh's Dream.

Review

In this era of ubiquitous mass media, when today's catchword is tomorrow's cliche Robert Harbison has produced that rarity, a thoroughly personal and original book. The Built, the Unbuilt, and the Unbuildable is a lucid, provocative meditation on architectural meaning, on 'some of the witting and unwitting means by which buildings evade functional necessities, or surpass them even while satisfying them.'

(Nancy Levinson, Architectural Record)

Robert Harbison's book is an extraordinary enterprise; there is nothing else quite like it. Boldly, he has collected all the images of architecture and landscape gardening, whether real or not, that have attracted and intrigued him over the years, seeing them as fascinating objects, expressions of the inner workings of the mind and psyche.

(Robin Middleton, Columbia University)

An attractive and popular book for a range of people. architects, obviously, will appreciate its ingenious demonstrations, but many more will enjoy it because it wears its learning lightly and raises issues which go far beyond the architectural field.

(Stephen Bann, University of Kent at Canterbury)

Edition details

• Publisher: Thames & Hudson
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0500341168
• ISBN 13: 9780500341162
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192